SHILLONG, Nov 7: MPCC working president, Ampareen Lyngdoh on Sunday said senior Congress leader Charles Pyngrope will not shift to the Mawryngkneng constituency in the 2023 Assembly elections.
Lambasting NPP state president, WR Kharlukhi for trying to create confusion within the Congress, she asked who gave him the authority to reassign a new constituency to Pyngrope, who represents the Nongthymmai seat.
“As a party, we want to make it very clear that he (Pyngrope) will contest from Nongthymmai in 2023,” Lyngdoh said, adding that it did not behove of Kharlukhi to make such presumptions.
She also said Kharlukhi made ridiculous allegations that Pyngrope did not campaign enough for the Congress candidate from Mawryngkneng. She was the party’s convenor for the by-elections to the constituency.
“Everybody saw Pyngrope had visited and campaigned in every polling station. It is not right to make such an accusation against a senior leader like him,” Lyngdoh said.
She advised Kharlukhi to concentrate on his own turf and stop making false statements.
Kharlukhi had earlier stated that Congress lost the seat deliberately as Pyngrope was planning to contest from Mawryngkneng in the 2023 polls while siblings Ampareen and R.G. Lyngdoh were eyeing Nongthymmai and Laitumkhrah.
The NPP said Congress works on assumptions and if one goes by such assumptions, the grand old party lost Mawryngkneng for the larger plan of fielding Pyngrope later.
“I pity Highlander Kharmalki. He is just a pawn in the political chessboard of the Congress,” he said.